Germany’s AfD proposes repatriation of Syrian refugees

The largest German far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) presented a proposal on Thursday 9 November for the repatriation of half million Syrian refugees living in Germany. The party’s leaders Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel justified the proposal by the improving security situation in Syria and President Bashar al-Assad’s call on expatriates to return to their homeland.

On the same day, Syria’s army declared victory over Islamic State after it managed to seize the jihadists’ last stronghold in the east of the country. According to Sunday news, however, the IS combatants recaptured the border city of Albukamal, proving the Syrian border with Iraq remains far from being stable. After this year’s parliamentary election in Germany, AfD has become the third largest party in the Bundestag. Its proposal further says the returnees accepted by Syria should only be accommodated in safe areas and that Damascus must guarantee its citizens who escaped the military draft will not be persecuted. New official figures indicate that 158,000 denied asylum seekers still live in Germany, with up to 28,000 of them being eligible for enforced deportations. Migration represents a hot topic in the ongoing coalition talks, with Greens opposing the more stringent approach of CDU/CSU and FDP.